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Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
You just have to shift the way you think when you bake. Tasting, changing, adapting, adjusting gives way to methodical measurements but weight not volume. You try to be methodical and meticulous and use a digital scale and once you put it into the oven, you pray to the bread gods that everything turned out ok. I love both types of cooking because they hit different areas of my sense memory. I love a roast chicken for a slightly different reason than a freshly baked baguette. The no knead method to baking literally changed my life.
To Sear or Not to Sear
Check out any of Harold McGee's books. He speaks very eloquently about searing and the fact that though it doesn't "seal in the juices", it does contribute a depth of flavor and a fond (that brown stuff at the bottom of the pan) that should be deglazed with wine, stock or even water and added to your stew. There is a lot of natural flavor in the fond and to not utilize it would be a real waste of flavor.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
In Season: Cranberries
You can't bake with fresh cranberries. Fresh cranberries contain a moisture content that messes with the natural leavening inherent to baking. Dried cranberries contain the same flavor but none of the moisture. When dried cranberries are combined with fresh cranberries a higher concentration of flavor can be attained - that is a possible solution as well.
I bought fresh cranberries from the farmer's market today and I might try to make a really flavorful relish using dried, fresh, and other aromatics. Good luck!
Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
You just have to shift the way you think when you bake. Tasting, changing, adapting, adjusting gives way to methodical measurements but weight not volume. You try to be methodical and meticulous and use a digital scale and once you put it into the oven, you pray to the bread gods that everything turned out ok. I love both types of cooking because they hit different areas of my sense memory. I love a roast chicken for a slightly different reason than a freshly baked baguette. The no knead method to baking literally changed my life.
To Sear or Not to Sear
Check out any of Harold McGee's books. He speaks very eloquently about searing and the fact that though it doesn't "seal in the juices", it does contribute a depth of flavor and a fond (that brown stuff at the bottom of the pan) that should be deglazed with wine, stock or even water and added to your stew. There is a lot of natural flavor in the fond and to not utilize it would be a real waste of flavor.
Emergency Birthday Dinner Help: NYC Restaurant for Group of 25
En Japanese Brasserie has a private room for that many people and it's pretty cheap too. Food starts at $45 a head.
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
anything from prune. and 2 bloody bulls made with gin not vodka.
Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Two Peter Luger Steaks
hanger or bone in ribeye
Recipes in Like Water for Chocolate
I've made the quail dish a few times. The recipes don't contain amounts so you have to guess but the flavor combinations are right on. Don't be afraid to experiment. Good luck!
'New Yorker' Turkey Cartoon Caption Contest
"he's on the three yard line . . . two . . . one . . . TOUCHDOWN!!"
Iron Chef HUGE Knife
it is called a cimeter (scimitar) knife. there are multiple spellings of that same word. It has a wide blade with quite a bit of heft as it is meant for butchery.
Latte Art
Whole milk is easier but skim can be heated to a perfect texture as well. Ultimately that is the goal: a warming to the milk via steam and heat that results in a creamy texture full of tiny microbubbles. Follow these steps directly and you will be fine.
1. Make sure both the milk and vessel you are using to steam are both cold.
2. Put the milk into the vessel. Put in roughly 40% of the volume of the container. The milk needs room to grow. A cappucino will require a larger pitcher then a macchiato because you need less milk.
(http://www.espressoparts.com/product/RW_27502/Rattleware_Spouted_Bell_Steaming_Pitcher__25_oz.html) g
3. Begin to steam the milk with the wand angled to cause a vortex in the milk when spun. The bubbles should never get big when you are steaming milk. The spinning of the milk while steaming ensures that there aren't any large bubbles.
4. Place your hand on the outside of the steaming vessel. As soon as it is just beyond too hot to touch, it is done.
5. Knock the jsteaming vessel on a hard surface to knock out any large residual bubbles resting under the surface. Shake the container in a circle to continue the spinning process.
6. Pour out a few ounces of steamed milk. The first few ounces are too frothy to create a rosetta.
7. Loosen your wrist and slightly shake the pitcher left and right beginning at the base of the cup. Continue pouring while shaking less and less.
8. Do that 1000 times and you may be able to make a rough version. Good Luck!
In Asia there are no ovens!
try chow.com for a good steamed chocolate dessert.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/483023
In Season: Cranberries
I would like to sweeten my cranberry sauce with something other than sugar. Being Canadian, eh, I have some very nice grade "A" maple syrup. I'd like to use it today with my turkey meal. Can anyone suggest the amount to use in replacing 1 cup of sugar? I'm going to also add some caramelized onions to the recipe. Sorry I left this so late....just joined! Thanks.
Brutus
In Season: Cranberries
@ wazup: You can bake with fresh cranberries. This upside-down cake from "Real Simple" Magazine is one of my new favorites:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/perfect-cranberry-upside-down-cake
In Season: Cranberries
I like Ina Garten's cranberry sauce.
In Season: Cranberries
Really,really like whole cranberry sauce from the recipe on the bag. Goes with so many things. Very good with potstickers.
Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
I'm one of those people who does both. I love to cook, but I went to school (and am currently externing) for baking. The key is to relax, like Gwen said. Just because it takes precision and focus doesn't mean you can't be relaxed. That takes time and practice, but if you stress out too much, you'll screw up even more. I'm learning that right now with cake decorating and I just have to constantly tell myself to relax, take a second and then just go for it. You can do it!
Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
For me, I think of baking as more of a hobby and cooking as more of a necessity. Again, this is just personal preference, but on the weekends, I like to bake something to take my mind off of work/school/etc. I seem to almost get lost in the melodic sounds of baking - pounding sounds of kneading dough, the vrrrrm of the mixer, and smell of the baking product. On the other hand, when I cook, I have to be completely focused, and, I admit, I sometimes get stressed out that it won't come out as I had planned. I don't know, maybe cooking as a "necessity" is not the right way to phrase it...perhaps a better way to say it is baking is my depressor drug and cooking is my stimulant :P
Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
I'm in training as a baker at Panera, where the size of the bake is measured in the cost as sold of all the breads, bagels, and sweets that we bake. Under $1600 is slow and easy. Above $2000 keeps ya hoppin', especially since it's usually just the one baker working overnight to bake off almost all the product (souffles and baguettes are the exception - they're prepped to be baked off by the day crew). We're production bakers: the dough is prepped daily at a central facility, and rests as it gets delivered to each store, where we form, proof, score, and finally bake the bread. And since there's so much responsibility and time organization necessary, training takes 5-8 weeks. I worked at Panera in the day crew for 4 1/2 years before that, and worked as a baker and crepe chef, too. The closest thing my Panera baker experience can be compared to is a mad dash 8-9 hour mise en place (since you don't have the pressure of service time; all the pressure is internal), and then sometimes some down time in the end when you know you're gonna make it, you've done all the prepping and all that's left is oven management. I love it.
Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Flour Power
I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I couldn't bake a decent loaf of bread until I bought a KitchenAid mixer. Seems so easy now. And the almost no-knead bread recipe from Cook's Illustrated...I rarely buy crusty artisan bread anymore...it's that good.
To Sear or Not to Sear
Time dictates whether or not I sear meat before a crock pot stew. Searing always improves the flavor but sometimes I lack time and just fling everything into the crock for a long slow simmer.
They have a new crock pot out that lets you sear the meat right in the crock pot liner on the stove, then transfer the whole liner back to the crock. If I ever need another crock, I'll be looking into this type.
Emergency Birthday Dinner Help: NYC Restaurant for Group of 25
We got 2 tables recently for about 25 at Hill Country. Everyone pays for their own food too, so it's kind of nice if you are concerned about friends having to split the tab, etc.
Emergency Birthday Dinner Help: NYC Restaurant for Group of 25
As much as I love and recommend Supper (it's my favorite Italian place in NYC - in fact, they're catering my wedding!), their two rooms aren't big enough for 25. One room seats 16 and the other seats 20. But maybe worth calling them to see if they can squeeze in a few extras into the larger room.
Emergency Birthday Dinner Help: NYC Restaurant for Group of 25
I've had my last birthday party at a place called Vamos!, we were 25-30 people, the food is great but the best part are the drinks: they have killer cocktails, they are also very accommodating and reasonable which is rare for large parties in the city . All my friends became regulars which tells everything...definitely a restaurant to recommend for large groups.
Recipes in Like Water for Chocolate
I was intrigued by the book years ago and concocted a recipe for the Christmas rolls which I use frequently. I remember that a chef in Chicago completed the recipes and offered a "Like Water For Chocolate" dinner on Valentines day. Living in the Southwest I encounter people from deep in Mexico and those who were from Spanish families which settled in New Mexico. I always ask if they are familiar with those old recipes and have never met anyone who has even heard of them! maybe the author could enlighten us!
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
Thank you for participating, and congratulations to our winner: Ldylopes. Winner has been notified by email and also appears on our Contest Winners page.
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
Bagels and cream cheese and just thinking about cheese blintzes makes me want to rush out and get one right now.
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
Murray's whole wheat bagel with pumpkin cream cheese and dark roast coffee -- yum! Thanks for the giveaway!
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
bagels & cream cheese
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
I miss my bagels!!!! (Hold the lox please.)
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
onion bagel, lox and cream cheese, cucumber, yum
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
I really love Bagels.
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
A breakfast taco (scrambled eggs/chorizo/green onions) and a really good dark cup of coffee (with half and half) !!
Seriously Delicious Holiday Food Giveaway: Russ & Daughters
Fresh orange juice from Pax.
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You can't bake with fresh cranberries. Fresh cranberries contain a moisture content that messes with the natural leavening inherent to baking. Dried cranberries contain the same flavor but none of the moisture. When dried cranberries are combined with fresh cranberries a higher concentration of flavor can be attained - that is a possible solution as well.
I bought fresh cranberries from the farmer's market today and I might try to make a really flavorful relish using dried, fresh, and other aromatics. Good luck!